The Joe Rogan Experience Episode 994 with Dom D’Agostino

What is the ketogenic diet?

It was observed long long ago that fasting (for 2-3 days) was a cure for seizures, as fasting puts you into a state of fasting ketosis

Ketosis is when you have a blood concentration of ketones greater than or equal to 0.5mmol

Ketones are produced by the liver from fat (either from our own body fat during fasting, or the fat we eat) and are used, instead of glucose, to create ATP (energy)

The ketogenic diet mimics the physiological state of fasting by supressing insulin and raising blood ketone levels

Insulin is released by our pancreas to help shuttle the glucose that we eat into cells

Essentially the ketone bodies replace glucose

Ketogenic Diet Odds and Ends

The strict ketogenic diet involves consuming about 90% of your calories from fat and 10% from protein/carbs

The modified ketogenic (or modified Atkins) diet involves consuming ~70% fat, 20-30% protein, and other non glycemic vegetables. This has around 90% of the benefits of the traditional ketogenic diet and is what Dom follows.

The body is very adaptable to switching fuel sources (fat and glucose)

Because of this, before heavy training (cycling, MMA), it might make sense to consume some sort of low glycemic, high molecular weight carbohydrates (sweet potatoes, yams)

However, you should be fine most of the time producing ATP for those short bursts of power you need, as long as you are consuming significant fat calories

Dom recommends consuming creatine phosphate (~3g a day) daily to help create those short bursts of power

Many people report not feeling any sort of “crash” after large meals on the ketogenic diets

This occurs due to the lack of glucose swings

The ketogenic diet works well because its non-glycemic

We control our appetite instead of our appetite controlling us

There is no rise and fall of glucose which makes us moody, hungry etc. and causes cravings

As we age, we become more carbohydrate intolerant and insulin resistant, so the benefits of the ketogenic diet increase as we age

Ketones lower blood glucose levels

Your brain can create ATP more efficiently from ketones compared to glucose

Many people have an impaired PHD enzyme (Pyruvate Dehyrogenase), such as people with Alzeimer’s Disease. This enzyme helps convert pyruvate (which gets converted from glucose) into acetyl CoA which is in turn used to make ATP. Ketones, on the other hand, completely bypass this conversion step.

As mentioned before: Many people have an impaired PHD enzyme (Pyruvate Dehyrogenase), such as people with Alzeimer’s Disease. This enzyme helps convert pyruvate (which gets converted from glucose) into acetyl CoA which is in turn used to make ATP. Ketones, on the other hand, completely bypass this conversion step.

Other data shows migraines are possibly linked to mini seizures in the brain

There are quite a few studies being done on autism and the ketogenic diet

Being in a state of nutritional ketosis could really benefit HIV and shingles patients

Ketones improve wound healing

Ketones thin out the blood (increases blood flow), and are able to get to the wound tissue which is lacking oxygen/blood flow. The ketones restore energy to the wound site (allow cells to replicate and heal the wound faster). Also persistant anti-inflammatory effects.

Under very high levels of oxygen, cancer cells, which have damaged mitochondria, tend to produce more reactive oxygen species. This oxidative stress potentially triggers apoptosis (celll death) at a level of oxygen that’s not really toxic to the healthy cells.

CBD oil may have synergistic effects with the ketogenic diet in relation to cancer treatment